DeVere Company Garage
5738 Lovers Lane, Portage
This 1950 garage was built not for automotive repair or storage, but,
surprisingly, for the manufacture of plastic products. A. DeVere Johnson
originally located the plastics business at 810 Palmer Street in
Kalamazoo; in the early 1950s, Marcello and Helen Austin began to run it.
Mr. Johnson went on at Palmer Street with a new metals engraving business,
the A.D. Johnson Co.
The Austins put up this three-stall garage next to their 1860 farmhouse.
The City of Portage Assessor’s card lists that one-half of its interior is
finished. It has gone unused for a number of years, and the concrete walls
are overrun with moss and decay. But the molded metal borders and corner
details still shine on a sunny day.
